Writing in a journal about your thoughts, feelings, dreams, images, and physical sensations trains you to pay attention to these ways you receive inner guidance. Keeping a written record is one of the best ways to begin trusting and developing your intuition. It’s a tool for self-discovery.
One of the first things that happens when you write down your observations is that you begin to know yourself better; you get a deeper sense of who you are and are able to explore and unlock your unconscious, revealing hidden aspects.
You also train yourself to pay attention by writing things down. You may get a sudden thought or an urge to do something, like take another route home. If you don’t heed these impressions or cues, you’ll dismiss them as insignificant. But this is exactly the manner in which intuition speaks to you; it is subtle and understated.
Recognizing intuitions when they happen takes discipline.
Everyone is born knowing, having an intricate and highly tuned inner GPS. There are different ways to recognize these messages; you may feel them (clairsentience), you may see them (clairvoyance), or you may hear them (clairaudience).
The key here is to write them down as soon as possible so you have a record where you can revisit them, strengthening your awareness of your intuition and seeing it working in your life. By journaling its presence, you allow intuition to become more evident and influential in your experience.
Discover your intuitive style.
Writing down your messages helps you uncover the major ways you receive them. Some people receive communication through dreams and images, while others through thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations. You may even have a combination of them.
By keeping track of the subtle ways your intuition comes through, you get a sense of your intuitive style, making it easier to recognize it in the future.
There are many benefits to keeping a journal and recording your intuitive messages. They include stress reduction, healing, knowing yourself better, growth, and enhancing your intuition and creativity. The following list contains more specific advantages for employing this tool:
Reduces the scatter in your life
Detaches and lets go of the past
Balances and harmonizes
Reveals your greater potential
Clarifies thoughts, feelings and behavior
Helps you get rid of the masks you wear
Creates more results in life
Explores your spirituality
Improves self-trust and intuition
Awakens the inner voice
Provides insights
Don’t Know Where to Start?
Just jump in! Get yourself a notebook or a journal (it doesn’t have to be fancy) and a pen or pencil and beginning writing. Ask yourself some thought-provoking questions and ideas. Here are a few:
How can I get more stillness and serenity in my life?
List 5 things every day you are grateful for.
What do I criticize and judge others for?
What major blocks need to be resolved?
What excuses keep me stuck?
List three great ideas or creative things you’ve thought of.
When am I my happiest, saddest?
Journaling with intention and purpose has more uses and benefits than any other tools we know. It can truly help us make sense of our world.
Take a leap of faith. Commit to journaling so you can uncover your own inner wisdom.
The Wizard of Oz is a great example of Joseph Campbell’s, The Hero’s Journey, and the Four Survival Archetypes. The archetypes, the Child, the Prostitute, the Saboteur, and the Victim, are all involved in and symbolize our significant life challenges related to survival.
Each one represents concerns, issues, fears, and vulnerabilities that cause you to negotiate away your spirit’s power in the physical world. They must be confronted and overcome and made into allies to become your guardians. They will preserve your integrity and not allow you to bargain it away for your survival.
In her book, Sacred Contracts, Caroline Myss compares these four archetypes to a table’s four legs. The table legs represent your relationship to the ground beneath your feet and to the universal energy that supports your life. They need to be stable to support the weight of the tabletop—our life and mission.
Despite the connotation of their names, the four survival archetypes are neutral and are the intimate companions of your intuition.
The Child archetype resides in everyone and is the first archetype you identify. Therefore it is your beginning point. This archetype sets up our earliest perceptions of life, safety, loyalty, and family, and its core issue is dependency and responsibility.
Its many aspects include the Wounded Child, the Abandoned or Orphan Child, the Dependent Child, the Innocent Child, the Nature Child, and the Divine Child.
Regardless of which aspect of the Child you relate to most intimately, this archetypal pattern brings you to meet your guardian of innocence. The Child helps heal, repair, and teach you what you need to care for in yourself.
In the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy—the Child archetype and looks for attention as she struggles to be heard and recognized by the adults (the child seeking self-authority, responsibility).
The Saboteur archetype, neutral energy within you, makes itself known mostly through disruptions, and its purpose is to help you learn the many ways you undermine yourself. The Saboteur’s fears and issues are all related to low self-esteem that causes you to make choices that block your own empowerment and success.
You can silence the Saboteur with acts of courage and by following your intuition. This is done through gut instincts that direct you to take action based on hunches rather than logic. To learn to experience that voice, you must respond to it. Start with making small choices.
The Saboteur’s core issue is fear of inviting change into your life, a change that requires responding positively to opportunities to shape and deepen your spirit. The choice to respond to an inner voice that directs you to pursue your spiritual life is obviously one that can rearrange your familiar world.
The Scarecrow—the Saboteur, points in one direction and then another because he can’t make up his mind. He is stuck on a pole and announces that he’s a failure because he hasn’t got a brain. This is the Saboteur in the shadow aspect.
The Prostitute archetype, although not thought of in kindly terms, is also neutral energy within you. We learn the great gift of never again compromising our body, mind, or spirit from this archetype. The Prostitute comes into play when our survival is threatened.
Its core issue is how much you are willing to sell of yourself—your morals, your integrity, your intellect, your word, your body, or your soul—for the sake of physical security. The Prostitute archetype also dramatically embodies and tests the power of faith. If you have faith, no one can buy you.
Confronting the
Prostitute within you transforms this archetype into your guardian. It will watch over your relationship to faith by awakening you to situations where you must decide to “take up your bed and walk,” and lasting transformation can occur.
The Tin Man—the Prostitute—is standing alone in a forest, frozen and unable to speak. The Tin Man complains that he hasn’t got a heart and sings about how loving he would be if he had one. He could then love freely without becoming frozen in fear. The heart here is symbolic of his faith in himself.
The Victim archetype, like the other three survival archetypes, is an energy pattern that provides you with an opportunity to stand up to your fears. It may manifest the first time you don’t get what you want or need, or you’re accused or punished for something you didn’t do.
The victim’s core issue is whether it’s worth giving up your own sense of empowerment to avoid taking responsibility for your independence. Its primary objective is to develop self-esteem and personal power. When you’re in a situation where you feel threatened, take notice of that reaction physically, emotionally, and mentally. That is the intuitive voice of your inner Victim.
The Cowardly Lion becomes the Bully/Coward archetype but quickly transitions to the fourth and final Survival Archetype—the Victim. He claims he has no courage and is, therefore, always the Victim. He complains about how unbearable his life has been (seeking pity—shadow) and wants to be given courage so he can be victorious (light).
In conclusion, the Child, the Saboteur, the Victim, and the Prostitute are the intimate companions of your intuition. They make you conscious of your vulnerabilities, your fear of being victimized and allow you to see how you sabotage your dreams. These four archetypes will become your guardians, preserving your integrity and refusing to allow you to negotiate it away under any circumstances. They will allow you to become completely self-reliant; through them, you will come to see options where others see excuses.
The more conscious you can remain about the archetypal patterns influencing your behavior, the more likely your choices and lessons will be positive. If your choices are made unconsciously, and you act defensively and fearfully, you may not learn and grow as you should. Hopefully, you will learn from them.
In our journey through life, we all encounter moments when we need to mend the fabric of our existence. For me, alcohol wasn’t the root issue; it was merely a symptom. The true challenge lay within – a spiritual bankruptcy that needed addressing. It’s not just those battling addiction who require upliftment; everyone benefits from support at some point.
The divine inspiration of the 12 steps channeled through Bill W. and Dr. Bob provides a transformative path when followed sequentially. Each step aligns with a fundamental principle crucial to its effectiveness.
At the forefront is the principle of acceptance. Acknowledge your powerlessness over people, places, things, and situations. Embrace the idea that everything unfolds for a purpose, and true happiness lies in relinquishing expectations and the need to understand every twist of fate.
Consider these common scenarios in life:
Have you been betrayed by a spouse or significant other?
Are you misunderstood for something you did or said?
Have you lost someone close to you that you loved?
Were you ever unfairly terminated or fired from a job?
Have you gone through a bitter break-up or divorce?
Have you been falsely accused of something you didn’t do?
These experiences are part of life’s tapestry; while you may encounter one or more, acceptance is the key. You don’t have to like the situation, but accepting it paves the way for a smoother journey.
Take the loss of a loved one, for instance. Constantly dwelling on the unfulfilled future and seeking answers to unanswerable questions disrupts your peace. The real challenge is accepting change, not the loss itself.
Remember,You cannot change anything but yourself.
Acceptance is the first gift bestowed upon those committed to healing. It marks the beginning of your life’s transformative journey.
“And acceptance is the answer to all my problems today.
When I am disturbed,
It is because I find some person, place, thing, situation —
Some fact of my life — unacceptable to me,
And I can find no serenity until I accept
That person, place, thing, or situation
As being exactly the way it is supposed to be at this moment.
Nothing, absolutely nothing happens in God’s world by mistake.
Until I could accept my alcoholism, I could not stay sober;
Unless I accept life completely on life’s terms,
I cannot be happy.
I need to concentrate not so much
On what needs to be changed in the world
As on what needs to be changed in me and in my attitudes.”
Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition p. 417
Are you having trouble accepting things in your life?
To understand what Shadow Work is, you must first be conscious of your shadow. The shadow, according to Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, consists of those parts of ourselves we choose to repress or hide that we don’t like. We do that by pushing them down into our unconsciousness during childhood.
Several examples of shadow aspects are selfishness, aggressive impulses, being self-centered, arrogance, shameful experiences, and fears. These aspects lead to certain types of behaviors, such as criticizing someone else that has your flaws, letting people know you’re entitled, judging people unfairly, and always being the victim.
Many negative issues that affect your life can result by keeping your shadow hidden and locked away. These can include:
Addictions
Uncontrollable rage/anger
Social anxiety
Obsessive/compulsive disorders
Sexual deviancy
Depression
Self-sabotage
Neuroticism
Limiting beliefs
Shadow Work is the process of exploring these aspects and is an endeavor you enter into on your own. There are various means to do this, but you must first acknowledge your shadow, and then embrace and befriend it. It is only by bringing these aspects to the surface that you can begin to live authentically, discover your inner wisdom and life purpose, and gain access to your Soul or Higher Self.
In my practice, when clients choose Shadow Work to connect with their intuition, I utilize other mediums to help facilitate the process since they are all interconnected. Sitting in silence is one way to start, so a Mindfulness Meditation practice is valuable to have in your toolbox. Learning to live in the present moment is key to connecting to your Higher Self.
Cultivating Self-Compassion and Self-Awareness are also key to being able to confront your shadow. Mindfulness Meditation helps foster non-judgmental awareness – the ability to stay in the present moment without involving the inner critic or other modes of judgment.
Journaling your emotions and new discoveries as you experience them – stream-of-consciousness writing – gives you an unfiltered window into yourself. Writing your insights and reviewing them later helps encode the discovery into your awareness.
“Why should I do Shadow Work?”
Working with your shadow allows you to slowly deepen many interior aspects of yourself and become loving and kind to that which you previously rejected, eventually allowing you to become more compassionate to both yourself and others.
When you work with the shadow you begin to reclaim the projections you put onto others. You turn inward and begin to gently listen and heal those aspects within yourself instead.
Shadow Work is how you integrate the aspects of your unconscious psyche into your conscious experience and allow the positive aspects of the shadow to express themselves. When properly used and channeled, the shadow-self has traits that you can use to further your own personal development.
Some of the traits include:
Creativity
Intuition
Resilience
Self-Esteem
Shadow Work is not easy, but until you own your shadow, your shadow will own you. Wouldn’t NOW be the time to begin your journey to self-awareness and freedom to live the life you were born to live?
What you resist, persists. This is a phrase I often use with my clients when teaching yoga, but it is a straightforward law, that once understood and put into practice, will change your life forever.
Would any change in your life, large or small, be something you find beneficial? Then pick one thing you struggle with and observe how you speak and think about it.
More people know what they don’t want, more than what they do want:
“I don’t want to be in debt.”
“I don’t want to be overweight.”
“I don’t want to be unhappy or sad.”
“I don’t want to look foolish in this yoga pose.”
Instead, they should say:
“I want to be financially secure.”
“I want to maintain a healthy weight.”
“I want joy and happiness in my life.”
“I want to do my best in this yoga pose.”
It is not the experience itself, whether being in debt, overweight, unhappy, or foolish looking that causes your pain and suffering, it is your resistance to the experience.
Simply by shifting your thoughts and words from what you don’t want to what you do, will create the results and change you desire. To accomplish this, however, you must make a conscious decision to reprogram your thought process. It’s a simple process, but not an easy one. I used index cards to remind me.
In 2006, when I was digging myself out of a large debt leftover from my divorce, I kept saying, “I can’t get out of debt.” Just as the Law of Magnetic Attraction states that like attracts like, my coach at the time told me I was attracting more debt.
He told me to write the affirmation – Money flows freely and abundantly to me – on an index card and carry it with me wherever I went. I let go of my resistance to the idea of attracting more debt and a magical thing happened.
I won the Power Prize Jackpot at the Borgata for $35,574!
Now I can’t guarantee you’ll have results on that scale, but I do know that when you let go of the resistance to anything, it allows things to flow to you freely and abundantly.
Know that the Universe is on your side and go with the flow!
and to the universal energy that supports your life. They need to be stable to support the weight of the tabletop—our life and mission.
